Please visit...

What's this blog about?

When I told my next door neighbor in May of 2008 that I was going to sell the house along with all of my personal possessions and move to Chiclayo Peru with my Peruvian wife, his response was..” That’s a path not many men walk.” I had that impression as well, but have since learned that many men and women have walked and continue to walk that path. There is a large expatriate community in Lima and a significant number of gringos scattered about the remainder of the country from the larger coastal cities to the smallest jungle villages. Many of them have personal blogs in which they offer travel advice, news, and a wealth of other information along with their individual experiences. The purpose of this blog is not so far reaching. My intent is simply to record my experiences and observations for family, friends and anyone else who may be interested, but mostly for myself. Peru is to me a musical, magical land and I’ve found that writing about it helps me to preserve the beauty I experience as I explore this enchanting country. Anyway, thanks for visiting my site. Feel free to come back again, and leave a comment if you’d care to or send an email to me at kaetan1@gmail.com.

Links we Like

Followers

Saturday, December 29, 2012

So,
you’re thinking about relocating to Chiclayo or some other Peruvian northern
coastal town and wondering if you’re going to need a car. Here are some things
you may want to consider before plunking down your nuevo sols.At
least 90% of the collisions I’ve seen involve a private car. Commercial drivers…
taxi, mototaxi, colectivo, combi and trucks drive in pretty much the same rhythm
and know what to expect from each other in the semi-controlled chaos that are
Chiclayo streets. For example, Commercial drivers (and native pedestrians) know
to lookboth ways when crossing a one way street. They know that the taxi
or combi or mototaxi ahead of them will suddenly swerve left or right or come
to a dead stop, because they do it themselves and are prepared to deal with it.
Private car owners are on a different rhythm – slower, indecisive and much more
cautious. And they do the unexpected, like slowing down before turning and not
‘shooting the gap’ between oncoming vehicles, and stopping on a yellow light.
And so they get hit or hit somebody.

Driving
isn’t the only drawback. Parking is a bitch. There is no difference between
trying to find a parking spot in downtown Chicago or in Chiclayo. And unless
you have a private and secure place to keep your car, especially overnight but
also during daytime, chances are good that when you next visit your car you’ll
be missing your side view mirrors (a favorite ‘midnight auto sales’ item) and
whatever else the thieves were able to remove. There are parking garages
scattered throughout the city, but unless you know they’re there they are
difficult to recognize and are not convenient to get in or out of.

There’s
the cost of gas, which right now is on a par with USA gas prices. In Chiclayo for
$1.20 you can go to pretty much anywhere you want to go by taxi and even less
in a mototaxi, and you don’t have to drive in what always resembles a
demolition derby, or worry about a parking spot and if your car will be there in
whole or in part when you get back. That same $1.20 will get you to most
surrounding towns like Lambayeque and Pimentel, albeit in a combi, which is
sometimes not the most comfortable mode of transportation if it’s an older
model.

And
there’s the expense of auto insurance which is mandatory, though most incidents
are minor and unless injuries are involved amount to nothing more that shouting
and exchanging insults with each other before driving off as if the whole thing
never happened.

Despite
the above, there are advantages to having your own car.

Going
somewhere at night on a combi or collectivo is a pain because of limited hours,
and the often unsafe areas where they are boarded. Taxis are the only other
option, and at night they are both expensive and dangerous if the driver has a
second occupation as a thief. Secondly, a car is more convenient for long
trips, where the only public transportation is by bus and you have to travel on
their schedule….not yours. Peruvians have no trouble traveling on a bus from
Chiclayo to Lima (12 hours) or to Cajamarca (6 hours), but my restless leg
syndrome kicks in at about the 3 hour mark and if I can’t pull over and walk a
bit the remainder of the trip is torture.

Still
think you may want to buy a car? Okay, let’s look at your options.

If
it’s a new car you’re thinking about there are a handful of new car dealers in
Chiclayo with modern facilities and showrooms. The Maquinarias dealership
offers Nissan and Renault. Other dealers
handle Honda, Toyota, JMC, Daewoo, Hyundai, Volkswagen and Suzuki. To my
knowledge the only General Motors brand available in northern Peru is
Chevrolet. The Chevy offerings from several dealers include the Sail ($11,500) and Spark ($8,000),
as well as a van and SUV. I don’t know the model names of the last two. A new
Chevy van at the Real Plaza Mall dealership has a sticker price of $10,500. I
have been told that almost all of the new cars sold in Peru are built/assembled
in Brazil or some other South American country.

There
are several ‘pre-owned’ car lots in or near Chiclayo. I have not visited them
so am not familiar with their offerings or operation. Most used cars are bought
and sold through either word of mouth or seeing a for sale sign on the streets.
It is my understanding that this 1981 Buick Skylark with automatic transmission
seen in the photo was owned by a sweet little old lady who only drove it to
church on Sunday. The Ford Escort parked in front of the Buick is also for
sale.

If
you’re going to own a car you’ll also need to maintain it. New car dealers have
complete service facilities but are regarded as expensive, probably because
they’ve adopted the ‘replace’ philosophy of US car maintenance facilities.
Peruvians don’t like to ‘replace’ anything
unless it is absolutely necessary…they repair. An old radiator, brake shoe,
generator, window crank handle, shock absorber, etc isn’t replaced, it’s
repaired. It’s a marvel to me how these mechanics can keep 30, 40 and 50 year
old cars on the road. Their repairs won’t last forever but no matter – they’ll
repair it again and again until there is nothing left to repair, and then
they’ll come up with some other exotic solution.

Repair
shops come in many flavors ranging from a complete facility at a new car dealer
to somebody’s back yard. Jam Motors is one of the newer and more modern.
Several of their mechanics were wearing coveralls with “certified GM mechanic”
embroidered on the back. They were working on three Chevy Spark taxis parked on
the street when this photo was taken.

The
majority of auto repair shops in Chiclayo look like this one. Most of them have
been around for a long time and are trusted by locals. Their hours of operation
are iffy and they may not be able to accept your job immediately and it will
probably seem to take forever to get your car back, but the job will get done
and at a cost that will be laughably low.

There
is one remaining item ahead of you...and it’s a huge one. Three years ago the
then President Alan Garcia signed legislation making the attendance of a driver
training school mandatory to obtain a first-time driver license. There are
several “Escuela De Conductores” that will be happy to teach the rules of the road
during a three-month course at a cost of $785. When you’ve completed the course
your next stop is at the Department of Transportation where you will undergo a
physical examination and then be required to pass a written and road test. This
at an additional cost of $392. It’s hard for me to believe that this system is
enforced as stated…the average Peruvian would not be able to afford it, but
true or not there is probably a substantial amount of time, money and red-tape
involved.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

For
Young people in Peru there are several milestones that are major league
activities. For a girl, the biggest single event in her young life is her 15th
birthday. It’s her ‘coming out’. It’s a formal dress; rent a hall and band;
take a ride in a horse drawn white carriage in Parque Las Muses; invite 150
guests at $12 per plate; let the liquor flow; party all night and bankrupt your
parents type event. Parents start saving and planning 3 years in advance. For a
boy it’s his 18th birthday and pretty much follows the same script,
except now he’s legal age and can drink with the rest of the ‘adults.’

Lesser
events but still up there on the importance scale are school graduations. Peruvians
celebrate graduations with an impressive display of pomp and circumstance at
four levels…kinder, primary, secondary and university. Common to all of them is
a ceremony in a hall or some other suitable facility that has been tastefully
decorated. In the larger cities and for wealthier families the graduates, parents and guests will be dressed to the nines. In small villages the kids will be dressed in the best clothing their parents can
afford, which is often hand-me-downs from older siblings; borrowed from a
neighbor or relative, or sew by mom or some other family member. There will be formal introductions as each graduate with escort enters
the hall individually and circles the standing/applauding attendees before
coming to a halt at a prescribed location. It’s heartwarming to watch kinder
graduates of five and six years old trying to act just as officious as university
graduates. After several speeches by faculty and parents the graduates and
their escorts will dance center stage, to be followed by dancing with parents
and finally the other guests. Following several hours of dancing, food will be
served followed by more speeches and the cutting of the graduation cake(s). These
activities last to the wee hours and often see the sun rise.

The
graduation Maribel and I recently attended in Puerto Arturo for primary students
in the 11 to 13 age range was different in that there were just four graduates.
And these are poor people…there were no 3-button suits, evening gowns or
horse-drawn white carriages. Still, the formal ceremony as outlined above was
followed to the letter.

The
four graduates are in this photo, taken on our first visit to the school in
October. Can you can identify them from the following photo?

They
clean up pretty well, don’t they? Jaime Diaz (left) intends to study mechanical
engineering. Next to Jamie is Luis Diego Fernandez who wants a future as a
medical doctor. Their teacher Ninfa Milian apologized during her speech for
sometimes “being too hard on you.” To Ninfa’s left, Cintya Cotrina has her
sights set on being a policewoman, and Eliana Castrejon wants a nursing career.
They will be going on to secondary school in Reque when school begins again next
March. They are personable and intelligent kids. Maribel and I were proud to be
their Padrinos de Promociòn (graduation Godparents).

The event was still going on at midnight when Maribel and I and three
others opted to leave. We walked about a mile through quiet village streets to
the highway where we lucked out and stopped a passing taxi that was returning ti Chiclayo from Puerto Eten. We were home at
1:00am, feeling good about the evening and happy for the kids.

Saturday, December 22, 2012

A
typical Chocolatada/ Christmas party lasts from 2 to 2½ hours. Preparation time
is considerably longer. The following is a laundry list of things that need to
be accomplished, and is applicable to all Chocolatadas we’ve sponsored.

The
process begins with a visit to schools that have requested our help. We
normally receive 3 or 4 requests every year beginning in September. The first
consideration during our visit is to try to gauge the financial condition of the
school/community. Would there be no Chocolatada without assistance, or are they
just looking for a free ride (it happens)?

When
need is established the next issue is transportation. What we’re looking at is
how far and how difficult is it to reach this community. In October we were
invited to a beautiful little village located in an isolated mountain valley where
we would have loved to sponsor a Chocolatada but the location made it a practical
impossibility. We were able to locate only one man with a suitable vehicle who would take us there but he wanted $315
round trip, which was not unreasonable given the distance and terrain but that was
nearly our entire budget.

How
much we have to transport and how many people are going determines the mode of
transportation. Often we’ve needed to charter a combi (van), which gets
expensive and depending on distance and total time can cost from $50 to $75.
For the just concluded Puerto Arturo Chocolatada this truck was our
transportation. Maribel and I rode up front with the driver. Milkito the Clown
rode in the open back with the food, toys and other gear. He didn’t mind, and
it saved us the cost of a second or larger vehicle. The driver…a friend of a
friend charged us $27 for the 30 mile round-trip plus the 2 ½ hours wait time. That’s
a pretty good price; better than other offers we received. I still hold out the
hope that someday someone will offer to transport us for the cost of the gas alone.

If
transportation looks doable we look next at the number of students enrolled
including ages and sex. This information tells us how much food we’ll need and
what kind and numbers of toys to purchase. Toys are usually the biggest budget
item. We know that a school with over 60 or so students will be beyond our
financial means. Purchasing toys is also the biggest time consuming activity. Big
department stores such as Tottus and Plaza Vea are avoided as they tend to
carry the larger, bulkier and more expensive toys. Our toys are purchased at
very small family owned stores clustered just outside of central Chiclayo. They
don’t have large inventories so it’s a case of buying 2 or 3 toys at this
store, perhaps 5 at the next, and so on. It’s also the custom to negotiate at
these stores. Maribel is a fierce negotiator and will get the best price
possible.

The
food items…paneton, chocolate, milk, sugar and candy are bought from whoever is
offering the best price at the moment. Empanadas are ordered two days in
advance from a small neighborhood bakery and picked up the morning of the
Chocolatada.

A
clown is standard, and finding one is not always easy. There are lots of
activities going on in December and good clowns are booked far in advance. We’ve
been fortunate so far in finding reliable clowns. The going rate for an
experienced clown is about $70.

And
finally, there are the on-site logistics to deal with. Does the school have an
outside area sheltered from the sun to stage the Chocolatada? If not is there a
large enough classroom? Will there be enough chairs for the students, and
tables for food and gifts? Who is preparing the chocolate milk and will it be
ready when food is distributed? Is there a CD player, speakers and microphone
for the clown, and someone who knows how to operate it? I’ve noticed that
clowns tend to get very temperamental when their act is disrupted by missed
music cues. Do all the teachers and students know a Chocolatada is taking place
on this date at this time (it’s surprising how often someone doesn’t get the
word)? These are just a few of the picky details that need to be addressed to insure
a successful Chocolatada.

Like
all organized activities, whether it’s a college reunion in New York USA or a
Chocolatada in Puerto Arturo Peru, a lot of up-front time and effort is
required. For us 99% of that time and effort falls on Maribel. She does all the
purchasing; makes all the arrangements and coordinates and oversees everyone’s
efforts including those at the school, and when we’re on site she’s in the thick
of things, handing out toys, serving food and doing whatever else needs to be
done. I know it’s cliché but without Maribel there would be no Chocolatadas or
medical campaigns or donated school supplies.

When
Maribel got into the truck to return home after the Puerto Arturo Chocolatada
she said “mission accomplished.” She looked tired but there was a big, proud
smile on her face. Later that evening she fell asleep at the theater during El
Hobbit.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

“Mission
accomplished”…those were Maribel’s words as we drove away from school I.E.
10043 in Puerto Arturo this morning at the conclusion of a fun Christmas party.
We had arrived at 10:00am and by 12:30 it was all over.

As
always, the clown was the featured attraction. The voices of 40 excited kids inside
a classroom responding to the antics of ‘Milkito the Clown’ were deafening. Milkito
did a good job of involving the kids and teachers in his portion of the
activities. An outbreak of measles prevented 23 kids from attending. We left
presents and food to be taken to them later.

After
the kids had burned off some energy they were ready for the paneton, empanadas,
candy and hot chocolate that are part of every Christmas party. They were also
ready for the toys they knew were coming. It is always a pleasure to watch
their eyes light up and see that initial burst of excitement when toys are
handed out.

The faculty at I.E. 10043 are probably the most enthusiastic and friendly group of
educators we’ve dealt with. They obviously have a good repoire with the kids,
and certainly made us feel welcome and part of the family. Pictured left to
right are Zenaida, Isabel, me, Maribel, Joselito (the school’s director) and
Ninfa.

This is the 5th chocolatada Promesa
Peru has sponsored, but it came very close to not happening. It was generous
donations at the last moment from the Wednesday
Morning RiversbendGolf Gals
(thanks for coming through for us again, ladies) and the GreendaleMonday Morning
Weight Watchers Group that allowed us to go forward. A big thanks from us
and the kids!